Many of the instruments in the orchestra were originally used in the battlefield as a way to quickly communicate over large distances. The shrill piccolo or brassy trumpet will cut through loud gunfire or swordfighting (think about why Yankee Doodle is played on a fife, or a trumpet playing “charge!”)
George Frederic Handel wrote his Music for the Royal Fireworks to accompany an outdoor performance of fireworks. He wisely used the modern descendants of battlefield instruments because of their ability to be heard outdoors while explosives were going off all around them. The score calls for nine trumpets, nine horns, three pairs of timpani, and no less than 24 oboes and 13 bassoons. Even by modern standards, that’s rock & roll; and, just like a rock concert, the first performances of the piece caused a three-hour traffic jam on London bridge, and a building was burned down. Seriously. Rock.
Have a wonderful New Year’s Eve! And here’s some early fireworks for you:
There are videos available with pictures of actual fireworks, but I chose this one because I like the high-speed performance.
Amid a sea of Nutcrackers, Messiahs, and TV specials, one of the best Christmas pieces gets lost in the mix. Bach‘s Christmas Oratorio is a piece which, while not ignored, does not get the recognition it deserves. It is overshadowed even by Bach’s own Advent & Christmas music (namely, Wachet Auf and the Magnificat.)
The Oratorio is actually six different cantatas strung together into one longer work. The six cantatas were not originally performed all at once; instead, they were spread apart and performed as part of six separate church services marking the important feast days of the Christmas season. Nowadays, they are almost exclusively heard as one large concert work.
Here is the opening chorus, “Jauchzet, frohlocket!” Merry Christmas!
Did you ever hear a piece and think, I know this tune, but these aren’t the words I’m used to?
Marc-Antoine Charpentier‘s Messe de Minuit (Midnight Mass for Christmas) is a French baroque mass which uses Christmas Carols that would have been recognized by any French person in the 17th / 18th century. The idea of singing different words to familiar tunes was by no means a new idea, and is a practice that continues today (for Americans, the most famous example of this is our national anthem, whose original words were for an English club for musicians – that is to say, drunken amateur musicians.)
French fashion … yeah …
Anyway, whether or not you recognize any of these French carols, the music is quite catchy, largely because of its origin as secular song. Charpentier, like a good Frenchman of the old monarchy of puffy wigs and silly shoes, makes exquisite, elegant work out of everyday melodies.
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